Fascism

"FASCISM MEANS THE SUPPRESSION OF ALL DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENTS."

"[[Progress|[P]rogress]] is possible only if we retain our right to think and our freedom to act."

"It is to such men and women that the Labour Movement makes its appeal. , J, C. Little. January 7th. 1937."

"[T]he German trade union movement. ...In May, 1933, the fascists seized it in order to smash it. Now it exists no more..."

"The pamphlet, we hope, will be read widely by those who have attained to manhood and womanhood since 1914. ...YET TO MAKE THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE MARCH TOWARD FREEDOM AND EMANCIPATION OF THE WORKING CLASS ...The great battles were won before their day, and their young lives have been overshadowed by the Great War and its terrible aftermath. ...[T]he better conditions they enjoy were obtained as a result of action in a State with a democratic form of government, by trade unions, and other organisations which are not permitted to function in fascist countries. ...[T]he triumphs of fascism here as elsewhere would result in the scrapping of that great political and social structure upon which rests the material well-being and spiritual freedom of our people. It would mean a new inquisition where the persecuted and oppressed would be those who... sought to make available for all... standards... possible by intelligent action in an enlightened community."

"Shall we not be wiser... by determining that our unions shall never be broken... by getting together NOW and acting... as vigilant watch-dogs to guard our organisations against the wreckers?"

"[T]he nineteenth century ended with the outbreak of War in 1914. That was a century in which human ingenuity excelled, and the coming of the big industries made possible... living and working conditions... beyond the reach of previous generations. ...[T]he working class attained to a new dignity as a result of collective efforts through trade unions, cooperative... [and] friendly societies, and... political action. The brutality which accompanied the mechanisation of industry, with its unbridled exploitation... gave rise to the movements which have now become accepted facts... [W]ith organisation and collective action... humanising working and living conditions became successful, and untold benefits accrued... [A]s a result... the worker reaped the reward of his increased , and won the full rights of citizenship..."

"And, supposing you, as a German worker, don't like the way the "leader" of your factory runs things, and you want to find a job elsewhere... [W]e see a reversion to the practices of the Middle Ages, when the serf was not allowed to leave the service of the feudal lord. All through the [labour] laws... in fascist Germany runs this increasing... RESTRICTION OF FREEDOM TO MOVE ABOUT. Agricultural labourers are prevented from coming to work in the towns, and town workers from going to the country. There exists a system of compulsory labour... [T]he workers' freedom of movement is limited by the introduction of the Workers' Passport (Arheitsbuch)... [for] all workers earning less than 8,000 marks (about £650) per year. ...[O]nly highly paid administrative posts in industry...[were] above this figure. Fascist Party officials... are exempt... as are government officials. The police... inspect these passports at any time. Unsatisfactory entries... by the employer... particularly... referring to... political opinions, or showing... a "discontented" worker—practically debar him from... employment. So... however poor the conditions, he cannot risk leaving..."

"[T]riumphs of fascism... would result in the scrapping of that great political and social structure upon which rests the material well-being and spiritual freedom of our people. ...[T]he persecuted and oppressed would be those who... sought... standards... [made] possible by intelligent action in an enlightened community."

"23 per cent... is deducted from the wages... almost a quarter. ...[T]hese figures do not appear in the Nazi official wage statistics—they give... wages BEFORE... deductions..."

"Here is a list of the compulsory deductions from German workers' wages... compulsory contributions to insurance, church taxes, rates, etc... 14.2% Payments to Labour Front and Nazi Public Assistance... 1.9% ayments to Party funds, air defences, etc... 1.6% Deductions for newspapers, radio in factory, Nazi Party journals, etc... 3.3% Payments to various state organisations : Sports Clubs, Ex-Service Men, etc... 1.0% Payments towards sundry other purposes : Nazi Party celebrations, etc... 1.3% Total 23.3%"

"Short time is on the increase in many industries... while short time (five or six hours per day, four or five days per week) is spreading there is no corresponding increase in hourly wages, and thus... workers... are earning less and less... But the Nazis boast their wages PER HOUR are unaltered, and thus, until you look into it, everything in Naziland is lovely."

"[T]he figures of state insurance... [are] very difficult to "cook." They show the percentages of the population earning various rates of wages in 1929 (pre-fascist) and 1935 (under Hitler). ...[T]here has been a considerable drift from the higher-wages ...into ...lower wages are earned. It's reckoned in weekly wages. ...[F]rom 1929 to 1935 (three years pre-fascist and three years of fascist rule), the percentage of the German people receiving HIGH WAGES HAS DECREASED, and... receiving LOWER WAGES... INCREASED. ...German workers now ... are earning less while working than they would have received in unemployed benefit in 1932, before the fascists came to power and severely slashed the unemployment assistance rates."

"[C]ompulsory deductions is a sore point with the German workers... one of the methods by which the fascists reduce wages without... appearing in... official figures."

"[I]f... deductions are made compulsorily from your wages... about which you have not been consulted... this amounts to a wage reduction... although... receiving the same sum."

"[T]he fascists in Germany have been rearming... Hitler and his pals are out for war... [T]o make war, they are increasing... armaments at break-neck speed. This means... more workers... employed in... armaments and munitions... [where] the few slight increases in wages have occurred... in one or two branches... But...looking into the wages of ALL... German workers... whether wages AS A WHOLE... And...prices—what those wages can buy. ...[T]he only stable factor is the MONEY WAGE, and even that has declined recently in some industries. Both the and compulsory and semi-compulsory deductions... introduced by the Nazis, have substantially reduced REAL WAGES."

"[L]ook... at the REDUCTIONS IN MONEY WAGES... under Nazi rule. Between 1929 and 1932 wages had been drastically reduced. But even so (using only Nazi figures) in the iron industry, the chemical industry and the building industry there have been slight reductions in money wages since 1935- Iron- workers' hourly wages were 92 pfennigs in 1935 and they fell to 91.3 in 1936. The 1935 average hourly wage of chemical workers was 82.5 in 1935—in 1936... 81.7 pfennigs. Building workers'... 84.7... per hour in 1935, and by 1936... 83.6. [T]he papermaking industry: skilled workers'... dropped from 71.2 in 1935 to 70.7 in 1936, and unskilled workers'... 59.6 to 57.6—a.... very nasty drop for... already less than... subsistence wage."

"[D]istinguish between real... and nominal, or money, wages. We reckon real wages in accordance with their purchasing power. If... you can only buy half what you bought last week—because prices have gone up—your wages have... been cut in half."

"[W]e again see a disparity between... arms... and other fields. The German Statistical Research Institute—the Nazis'... official institute, from whom we take... [all] figures... gives the daily average... 1935 as 7 hours per day. BUT... that average is made by adding up all the hours... in all industries... then dividing... by the number of workers. ...[W]e see... in the arms industry... eight, nine or... ten hours per day—while in... "consumption goods" (food, drink, clothing, smoking, furniture, etc. ...to make life human) ...only five or six hours. ...[Y]et there are millions ...who badly need food and clothing. ...[S]omething wrong somewhere!"

"German fascists claim... they have kept wages stable... Even with their power to doctor figures, the Nazis have not the face to claim that wages HAVE RISEN. But have they even remained on the pre-fascist level?"

"[F]ascists or Nazis... deprived... workers of... open, independent action. Their unions have been destroyed as well as the working-class press. All... parties, except the Nazi, or fascist... have been forbidden. Thousands of working-class leaders and... trade unionists are in prison or concentration camps. Many... killed for... [being] active on behalf of the working class. ...[W]orkers are forbidden to organise and... express... discontent. Their factory councils have been abolished. Except for the courage... in their hearts, their secret will to... freedom, and... "underground" resistance, they are defenceless."

"Why have the fascists stripped the workers of their defence? ... THE WORKERS' ORGANISATIONS AND PRESS STOOD BETWEEN THE WORKERS AND THE EMPLOYERS, THEY WERE A WALL OF DEFENCE AGAINST WAGE-CUTS, LONGER HOURS, HARSHER WORKING RULES, WORSE CONDITIONS GENERALLY. So, said the employers, they had to go. And the employers hired the fascists to do the dirty work..."

"Nazis maintain a continual barrage of propaganda... to camouflage the facts. ...[A]ll the figures at our disposal come from OFFICIAL FASCIST SOURCES."

"Some of the similarities and parallels include: Frequent recognition by Hitler and various Nazi leaders (and also Mussolini) that their only revolutionary and ideological counterparts were to be found in the Soviet Union . . . [and the] espousal of the have-not, proletarian-nation theory, which Lenin adopted only after it had been introduce in Italy."

"[I]f the League of Nations must be a solemn ‘swindle’ of the rich against the proletarian nations to fix forever the actual conditions of the world equilibrium, let’s look each other well in the eyes. I understand perfectly that arrived nations can establish these awards which ensure their opulence and their actual dominant position. But this is not idealism: this is profit and interest."

"Mussolini insisted that Fascism was the only form of ‘socialism’ appropriate to the ‘proletarian nations’ of the twentieth century."

"In October and November 1937, Mussolini spoke of a ‘necessary alliance’ with Germany and Japan in anticipation of what he conceived an inevitable conflict between the ‘proletarian nations’ and the ‘sated’ industrial powers."

"We are the proletarian people in respect to the rest of the world. Nationalism is our socialism. This established, nationalism is founded on the truth the Italy is morally and materially a proletarian nation."

"Michels, like Olivetti, conceived Italy’s proletarian nationalism to be revolutionary, indeed, Marxist in essence. More than that, Michels was prepared to identify national interests and national sentiments as factors of primary historical and socialist importance—a conviction that was to provide the vindication for our century’s first national socialism."

"Strasser and his associates had responded to the socialist appeal of the times, but ‘not as to the call of the proletarian class but of proletarian nations.’"

"As early as 1930, Fascist theoreticians had begun to speak of an internazionale fascista, a pan-fascist union of kindred have-not or proletarian, nations. By 1935, Fascist maintained that Fascism recognized that the ravages of war and depression in Europe could only be undone by international ‘antiplutocratic’ reconstruction and argued, as a consequence, that Fascism was to be both ‘patriotic and international at the same time.’"

"The Russian Revolution's impact on sections of the and the rise of the Labour Party profoundly disturbed important sections of the Conservative right and it was in these circles that first came into existence in 1923, when , who had served in the Women's Reserve Ambulance during the war, formed the , subsequently the British Fascists (BFs). Set up to oppose a feared communist uprising, the British Fascists organised in paramilitary units and was eventually to split during the 1926 General Strike over the government's insistence that the the British Fascists would have to drop the military structure before their assistance could be accepted in breaking the strike. An earlier split had taken away some of the most militant members, while the 1926 split deprived it of elements who prioritised anti-socialism over any specifically fascist affiliation. Later in the 1920s, yet another group, the , would bring together elements convinced that the BFs, rather than being truly fascist, had failed to break decisively with conservatism."

"All the M-L's "United Fronts" care about is a strict political approach to defeat fascism and prevent them from attaining state power, while being able to usher the in instead. They organize liberals and others into mass coalitions just to seize power, and then crush all radical and liberal ideological opponents after they get done with the fascists. That is why the Stalinist "Communist" states resemble fascist s so much in refusing to allow ideological plurality — they are both totalitarian. For that matter, how much difference was there really between Stalin and Hitler?"

"For many liberal of the 1930s fascism seemed not so much intrinsically wrong as wrong-headed, offering solutions that were at once too extreme and inadequate to address the crises of modernity."

"Where mass-mobilizing ‘revolutionary Marxists’ have come to power, and remained in power sufficiently long to create a viable political system, what they have generally succeeded in creating is a reasonable analogue of the Fascist state."

"For conservative and nationalist discourses, these marginalized Others were frequently objects of fascination and revulsion. Yet the horror provoked by Jews, homosexuals, and, in some areas, Gypsies cannot be explained simply by reference to the marginal; it was the way those at the margins of society made the bordelines of gender and nationality blur and shift that threatened to tear apart the very fabric of the patriarchal nation-state as it had been constituted. This threat was perhaps especially acute in Germany, whose identity as a unified nation was so tenuous."

"Thus, by 1925, both Leninism and Fascism, variants of Marxism, had created political and economic systems that shared singular properties . . . Both sought order and disciple of entire populations in the service of an exclusivistic party and an ideology that found its origins in classical Marxism ... Both created a kind of ‘state capitalism,’ informed by a unitary party, and responsible to a ‘charismatic’ leader."

"The American people know that the principal difference between Mr. Hitler and Mr. Stalin is the size of their respective mustaches."

"The war we fight today is more than a military conflict; it is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century. On one side are those who believe in the values of freedom and moderation – the right of all people to speak, and worship, and live in liberty. And on the other side are those driven by the values of tyranny and extremism; the right of a self-appointed few to impose their fanatical views on all the rest. As veterans, you have seen this kind of enemy before. They're successors to Fascists, to Nazis, to Communists, and other totalitarians of the 20th century. And history shows what the outcome will be: This war will be difficult; this war will be long; and this war will end in the defeat of the terrorists and totalitarians, and a victory for the cause of freedom and liberty."

"It is well known that Sorellian Syndicalism, out of which the thought and the political method of Fascism emerged—conceived itself the genuine interpretation of Marxist communism."

"The intellectual origins of Fascism share central tenets with the Non-Marxist Left."

"Between the misdeeds of Hitler and those of Stalin, in my opinion, there exists only a quantitative difference... I don't know if the Communist idea, if its theory, already contained a basic fault or if only the Soviet practice under Stalin betrayed the original idea and established in the Soviet Union a kind of Fascism."

"Subjective perceptions, whether favourable or unfavourable, help us to understand the nature of the political debate bun not necessarily the nature of fascism or, least of all, any possible connections with conservatism. Discussion of their relationship is complicated by the fact that neither is easy to define. The common tendency to use the term 'fascist' as a political epithet and 'conservative' as a synonym for retrograde or reactionary does not help. But scholars who usually avoid such loose language also find it difficult to come up with generally acceptable definitions, probably because fascism lacks a clearly recognizable fountainhead in the world of ideas and conservatism encompasses attitudes and phenomena that go beyond ideology and politics."

"Conservatives and fascist ideologies adapted the notion that Jews were alien to the national community to a cultural critique that attributed the inauthenticity of contemporary mass culture to Jewish influence. Jews, not having a fixed location, could not share in cultures rooted in the community of blood or soil and were therefore reduced to the imitation of other cultures, to artifice."

"The initial press commentary in Moscow on the formation of the first Mussolini government was not overwhelmingly anti-Fascist, despite the Duce’s talk of a ‘revolutionary rivalry’ with Lenin. Fascism was sometimes perceived not inaccurately as more of a heresy from, rather than a moral challenge to, revolutionary Marxism."

"While all these untoward events were taking place, amid a ceaseless chatter of well-meant platitudes on both sides of the Atlantic, a new and more terrible cause of quarrel than the imperialism of czars and kaisers became apparent in Europe. The Civil War in Russia ended in the absolute victory of the Bolshevik Revolution. The Soviet armies which advanced to subjugate Poland were indeed repulsed in the Battle of Warsaw, but Germany and Italy nearly succumbed to Communist propaganda and designs. Hungary actually fell for a while under the control of the Communist dictator, Bela Kun. Although Marshal Foch wisely observed that “Bolshevism had never crossed the frontiers of victory,” the foundations of European civilisation trembled in the early post-war years. Fascism was the shadow or ugly child of Communism. While Corporal Hitler was making himself useful to the German officer class in Munich by arousing soldiers and workers to fierce hatred of Jews and Communists, on whom he laid the blame of Germany’s defeat, another adventurer, Benito Mussolini, provided Italy with a new theme of government which, while it claimed to save the Italian people from Communism, raised himself to dictatorial power. As Fascism sprang from Communism, so Nazism developed from Fascism. Thus were set on foot those kindred movements which were destined soon to plunge the world into even more hideous strife, which none can say has ended with their destruction."

"It cannot seriously be denied that as movements, parties and political ideologies, conservatism and fascism occupied very different positions within the early and mid-twentieth century European right, converging at some points and conflicting at others. In certain circumstances, especially characteristic of the 1919–45 period, convergence outweighed conflict, and the uneasy coupling of fascism and conservatism spawned a new kind of political regime. With fascists often showing a tendency to succumb to a cosy conservatism, and conservatives sometimes embracing the rhetoric (or more) of fascism, such regimes exhibited a kaleidoscopic variety of tendencies of which the rarest was what might be termed 'pure' fascism. In many cases, genuine—that is so say self-consciously radical—fascists were a negligible force and any 'fascist' elements at most merely cosmetic. Elsewhere, notably in Spain, assorted conservatives proved capable of displacing radical fascism. In fascist Italy, surely the paradigmatic fascist regime, conservatives co-existed with fascists, survived largely unscathed, and when given the opportunity overthrew the Fascist regime. Only in Germany did the conservative right come close to being devoured by the tiger it had chosen to ride."

"Mussolini and Hitler promised to restore national glory and depicted themselves as the last defense against radical socialism. Neither appealed to racism at first. Not even Hitler, who muted his virulent anti-Semitism in public to attract voters during the late 1920s. New followers told themselves he had mellowed, but his base and his Jewish targets never doubted his true intentions."

"In April 1937 Franco, as effective of , fused the Falange with the , monarchists and the rest of the right to form the single party of his regime: a process, though differently conducted, somewhat similar to 's fusion with Nationalism and Clerico-Fascism after 1922. The product, like the Italian Fascist regime, was a compromise between radical fascism and conservative authoritarianism, in this case with unambiguous military and Church support. [...] The vital feature of all these and other regimes, whatever their provenance and outward characteristics, is that in all of them conservative interests and value-systems proved either dominant or capable of coexisting with an official 'fascism'. This is not suggest that in italy during the 1930s or Spain during the early 1940s, conservatives, whether driven by monarchism, Catholicism, or material interest, were not often irked by fascist display, vulgarity and office-holding or, indeed, anxious lest full-scale 'fascist revolution' might yet be unleashed. The fact remains that no serious conservative attempt to overthrow Mussolini occurred until wartime defeat transformed political realities, while monarchist machinations against Franco regime were both unsuccessful and dictated more by self-interest than ideology or principle."

"Fascism cannot be comprehensively understood without an understanding of Marxism."